delight! And you may well believe that during the
day all my perplexities vanished. So, my dear sir," he continued, "if
you marry, let your dog loose and put broken bottles over the top of
your walls."

"And did the viscountess perceive your distress during these three days?

"Do you take me for a child?" he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I have
never been so merry in all my life as I have been since we met."

"You are a great man unrecognized," I cried, "and you are not--"

He did not permit me to conclude; for he had disappeared on seeing one
of his friends who approached as if to greet the viscountess.

Now what can we add that would not be a tedious paraphrase of the
lessons suggested by this conversation? All is included in it, either
as seed or fruit. Nevertheless, you see, O husband! that your happiness
hangs on a hair.

MEDITATION XVII. THE THEORY OF THE BED.

It was about seven o'clock in the evening. They were seated upon the
academic armchairs, which made a semi-circle round a huge hearth, on
which a coal fire was burning fitfully--symbol of the burning subject of
their important deliberations. It was easy to guess, on seeing the grave
but earnest faces of all the members of this assembly, that they were
called upon to pronounce sentence upon the life, the fortunes and the
happiness of people like themselves. They had no commission excepting
that of their conscience, and they gathered there as the assessors of
an ancient and mysterious tribunal; but they represented interests much
more important than those of kings or of peoples; they spoke in the
name of the passions and on behalf of the happiness of the numberless
generations which should succeed them.

The grandson of the celebrated Boulle was seated before a round table
on which were placed the criminal exhibits which had been collected with
remarkable intelligence. I, the insignificant secretary of the meeting,
occupied a place at this desk, where it was my office to take down a
report of the meeting.

"Gentlemen," said an old man, "the first question upon which we have to
deliberate is found clearly stated in the following passage of a letter.
The letter was written to the Princess of Wales, Caroline of Anspach,
by the widow of the Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV, mother of
the Regent: 'The Queen of Spain has a method of making her husband say
exactly what she wishes. The king is a religious man; he believes that
he will be damne